Formative Assessment Method: Connect Two

In this post I want to share with you an easy formative assessment method that you may or may not have heard of called "Connect Two."

As readers, we realize that a flow of significant vocabulary guides our thinking through written texts. Of course, our comprehension of these texts hinges on the knowledge of key vocabulary that we bring into our reading. But we are also called upon to tap into our partial knowledge of words, our hunches about words that are unfamiliar, and our predictions about words based on our ability to glean an overall sense of meaning from a passage. Finally, we realize that words are better understood with their companion words - terms with which they share some relationship.

Connect Two is a strategy that helps students explore the key vocabulary of a passage (or lesson, or section, or unit). It can be used as a "front-loading" strategy for students to make predictions about a topic to be covered, or it can be used as a formative assessment method to make sure that students grasped the concepts being taught.

Using the Connect Two strategy involves the following steps:

Step #1

Identify 10-15 (or more) concepts or terms that students have read/will be reading. Include terms that will be more familiar and others that may be new or challenging.

Step #2

Arrange these chose words into two columns. These columns could be written on the board, or typed in a chart. Alternately the list could be shared in a format like Google Forms, requiring a written (typed) response from the students rather than an oral response.

Step #3

Instruct students that they have to arrange the words in logical pairs, and write (or say) a sentence that logically explains how the two words are meaningfully connected. It is important here to clarify that, for example: "Parthenon and statue are two words on the board." is not an appropriate answer. However, "The Parthenon was a temple with many statues dedicated to Greek gods." would be appropriate.

To extend this activity, you could have students compete to come up with the most correct responses, or the response that includes the most words from the list, etc.

Connect Two Example (Google Docs)

Connect Two Example (Google Forms)